About a year and a half ago, I discovered this singer Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）of which there is very little written about her although there is some information exists on sites such as Amazon.jp when it comes to her albums although I think all of them may now be in haiban status.
For that first song of hers, I focused on "Sayonara ga Nemuranai"（さよならが眠らない）from 1991. I was pretty drawn to that 80s/90s power ballad arrangement but one commenter, Pocari Dev, did mention that Kurosawa had actually been doing more uptempo Eurobeat dance tunes.
Well, I have found one such song "Give Me Love" which was actually written by the singer and composed by Keiko Yokoyama（横山敬子）. I wasn't sure whether this was an official single by Kurosawa but it was placed as a track on her April 1990 album "Real" which may have been her debut release. It has that underlying R&B beat for a pretty active song that keeps the singer's vocals very busy and the keyboard operator panting right to the very end. I've given "Give Me Love" a few spins now, and though I like it, I think the keyboardist didn't really need to punch down so hard.
Hey!
ReplyDeleteIt is so nice you have checked Ritsuko Kurosawa's songs :). "Give me love" is too heavy for me, i think you are right, these synths are maybe a little too much.
She has some nice uptempo songs like "Jun-ai", "Up and Down" or the ultra catchy and happy "Fairy Express".
You can see the videoclip for "Jun ai" here :).
https://youtu.be/Yb9KqhYD7o0
Saludos amigo!
Hello, Pocari!
DeleteThanks for the tip on the video. It looks like Ritsuko had some moves as well. And I think one of the back dancers later became a member of the band trf."Jun-ai" is indeed a very 90s song.
By the way!
ReplyDeleteI have just found this catchy song on YouTube... Do you know the singer?.
It is very catchy indeed.
https://youtu.be/vXp5a_83LGA
Hi, Pocari!
DeleteIndeed, it is quite catchy. The singer is Sachiko Kumagai and "Hikari no Bell wo Narase" was her 4th single from 1993. Actually, there is one song by her on the blog: "Mirai wa Kimi no Mono"（未来はきみのもの）.
https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2018/01/sachiko-kumagai-mirai-wa-kimi-no-mono.html
I will have to talk about this new Sachiko discovery sometime soon! Thanks.
Hi!
DeleteWow, you are such an expert on Jpop :). Thank you very much!. I liked so much the song that I downloaded it and put on my Ipod hehe.
I checked your entry on Kumagai's post too.
Saludos!
Hi again, Pocari.
DeleteWell, I like my music but in this case, I think it was just that I could read the kanji for Kumagai's name and the J-Wiki article for her.:) Thanks for the intro to "Hikari".
Oh, one more thing!
ReplyDeleteUhmm, do you know if exists any live performance of early Megumi Hayashibara songs?. I love her early albums, but I couldn't find nothing on Youtube. I would love watch her singing "Ganbatte!" live :).
Saludos amigo.
Hi, Pocari!
DeleteIn my experience, Megumi Hayashibara's YouTube videos seem to get taken down relatively quickly. I guess she and her representatives are especially sensitive to the copyright issues.
You may want to try sites such as NicoNico or Dailymotion if they have any of her performance videos.
This track is so catchy! Also, I've heard this bassline somewhere else, but I can't remember...
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is! I've also made the same aural observation, and I think that bassline has been used for other similar songs, Japanese and American. Perhaps it was also used for Dream Come True's "Kessen wa Kin'youbi" (https://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2012/08/dreams-come-true-kessen-wa-kinyoubi.html).
Delete